iBook Clamshell (ibook-clamshell.com)

by polishdude20 69 comments 73 points
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69 comments

[−] ZekeSulastin 55d ago
I don’t think I’ve seen a cookie banner pop up with a “please reconsider” on refusal … ever, actually. Neat?

I had Debian running on an old clamshell iBook for a bit; the main things I remember were that it was kind of neat, and that it took less cpu to play music from my server via mpd and pulseaudio-over-network than it did to play the files directly on the iBook.

[−] halapro 55d ago
I'm struggling to come with why reasons why such a website should display that banner. Apple doesn't.
[−] Someone 55d ago

> I don’t think I’ve seen a cookie banner pop up with a “please reconsider” on refusal … ever, actually. Neat?

On the subject of cookie banners, https://gdpr.eu/cookies/ says

“To comply with the regulations governing cookies under the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive you must […] Make it as easy for users to withdraw their consent as it was for them to give their consent in the first place.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a site with “withdraw cookie consent” functionality.

The best you can get is that it is as easy to not consent as to consent (and this site doesn’t even accomplish that. Not consenting requires two click, consenting only one)

[−] andai 55d ago
Does this mean those sites that require you to go to a "legitimate interests" page and manually uncheck all of them are breaking the law?

https://xkcd.com/2432/

[−] Doxin 54d ago
As I understand GDPR you're not even allowed to de-emphasize the reject cookies button.
[−] SahAssar 54d ago
Yes.
[−] toddmorey 55d ago
It’s interesting to remember Apple used to orient the logo so that it was upside down when opened.

That looks right to you as you open the laptop, but wrong to everyone else. Now when you’re in a coffee shop, all the little metal promotional billboards are correct.

[−] PetitPrince 55d ago
Classic Thinkpad use to do that as well. A reasoning I've read somewhere (here perhaps ?): the laptop is here to serve you, not be an advertisement.
[−] DANmode 55d ago
It used to be!
[−] 10729287 55d ago
Check your local classifieds for « DY » laptops, you’ll find a lot of hp computers for this exact reason !
[−] exitb 55d ago
It seems that other laptop manufacturers were doing the same thing around the turn of the century, although usually not as prominently.
[−] bluGill 55d ago
In the OJ Simpson trail IBM made a sbecial thinkpad for the judge so the logo would be right side up on tv.
[−] benatkin 55d ago
It also looks wrong to the owner as they return to their table without closing it. Which is quite common.
[−] twic 55d ago
A wise laptop manufacturer would choose a logo which looks the same both ways up.
[−] shawn_w 54d ago
Or put the logo on a pivot so it's always right side up no matter the orientation of the laptop.
[−] joe_mamba 55d ago
Shame Apple didn't have the balls to release the Neo in those bright colors in homage, and instead went with the safe, bland, corporate committee, focus group approved, muted colors like the rest of their product lineup. Booo! Missed opportunity.
[−] baal80spam 55d ago
I am quite sure that they will expand the colour palette in the next gen. One more way to distinguish that you have "a new version of the thing".
[−] itsmesashank 54d ago
“Everyone should do things the way I want them because what I want is always the correct thing!”

Apple literally released a colorful laptop and you’re complaining that it’s not colorful enough. If you were saved from a burning building, you’d complain about which door the firemen used to enter.

[−] nielsbot 55d ago
This could simply be because you can’t get colors as bright as plastic from anodizing aluminum.
[−] ranger_danger 55d ago
It's almost like companies know what sells best and go with that for maximum profit :)

Why is it a shame that they didn't choose to lose money on purpose?

[−] HauntingPin 55d ago
Those prices are wild. I forgot how much laptops cost at the time. On the other hand, I was just a kid, so maybe I was just never really that aware of it.

Price USD Price DM Euro

$ 1,599 DM 3749 EUR 1917

$ 1,799 DM 4249 EUR 2172

$ 1,499 DM 3999 EUR 2045

$ 1,799 DM 4699 EUR 2403

https://www.ibook-clamshell.com/index.php/en/model-overview

[−] danielfoster 54d ago
What I find most interesting about this website is that even in 2026, Germany still requires website owners— even hobbyists- to list their name and personal address in the Impressum. So much for anonymity.
[−] schappim 55d ago
Oh memories! The iBook SE was the first Mac I had.

This was pre-Mac OS X. The thing had a terrible 800x600px screen but still it was my gateway to decades of Macs.

The switch to Unix in MacOS X cemented their place in my life.

I will totally deny that the Macs in Independence Day and Mission Impossible were major influences on my juvenile mind to switch to the Mac.

[−] Cockbrand 55d ago
The clamshell iBook had one very distinctive disadvantage: when the laptop world had finally arrived at a default display resolution of at least 1024x768, the iBook had an 800x600 display. This forced web designers (in a time before widely supported CSS or even responsive design) to design for the smaller viewport of the iBook instead of being able to take advantage of the higher-res displays of the rest of the world.
[−] isoprophlex 55d ago
Man do I love that old Apple typography, the tall serif'd letters.

I'm sad everything's serifless these days...

[−] queenkjuul 54d ago
I love my ibook, but man oh man, one of the hardest laptops to work on. Had to replace the HDD on mine last year and hoping the SSD i installed lasts the rest of my life because that laptop is probably not going all the way back together next time it comes apart.

I did get NT running on mine using that project from last year and it's quite the feeling to see space cadet pinball on a G3 clamshell lol.

On the slightly newer ibooks you can run relatively modern Debian (i think i have 11 on my G4?) or else Adelie Linux is pretty good but i haven't messed as much with the clamshell.

[−] ranger_danger 55d ago
I remember when it came out, John C. Dvorak called it a toilet seat.
[−] zoklet-enjoyer 55d ago
I was in 8th grade and the school's computer lab was filled with iMacs and the library had iBooks students could check out. That was where I discovered Wikipedia, Yahoo Clubs, and Geocities. We had a PC at home but it was older and we could only get dial up at the time, so the higher speed connection at school and the faster hardware was great.
[−] turbonaut 55d ago
Compare the prices vs a Neo…

1499 usd for the cheapest clamshell!

https://www.ibook-clamshell.com/index.php/en/model-overview

[−] accrual 55d ago
I've been thinking about getting into retro Apple laptops! I'm wanting to start with either a Tangerine iBook or the glossy white MacBook A1181.
[−] ChrisMarshallNY 55d ago
Cool site.

I always enjoyed the concept of the iBook, but never found it something that I wanted, personally.

I used to refer to it as "the MacBook Toilet Seat."